Ripley's Game

**Chris Knipp** · 03-03-2004, 01:52 AM

I wish that I could see the new Patricia Highsmith movie, Ripley’s Game, starring John Malkovich as Tom Ripley, in a nice big theater. I’m such a Highsmith junky. I've read all her books. I've been further inside Tom Ripley's head than I'd like to say. I could have caught it if I’d stayed in London a week or two longer last summer. Now it seems it won’t be showing in this country at all, so Anthony Lane says in The New Yorker, who knows why. The latest news is that it's going direct to video. I'm sure it -- and we, damn it! -- deserve better. What a ripoff. And all I can get now is a one of those cheesy generic trailors with that irritating generic advert voice.

Alain Delon, Matt Damon – interesting versions of Ripley, but hardly resembling the Tom of the novels. Malkovich certainly has a chance of being the one. Or worth seeing anyway. He exudes intelligence and meanness, as neither the gorgeous Alain nor the needy Matt really did. This would be a performance where the creepiness might finally come through.

The director Liliana Cavani has an odd and quite interesting history.

It is most disappointing to have to get the DVD without ever having seen the movie on the big screen.

**oscar jubis** · 03-03-2004, 02:38 AM

Audiences in Europe did not seem very interested. Reviews were mixed, at least the ones written in English. In the US, it premiered last September on the Independent Film Channel (IFC). DVD release scheduled for 3/30/04.

**Chris Knipp** · 03-03-2004, 04:26 PM

I see. Yes. Peter Bradshaw did call it "rickety nonsense." But Philip French called Malkovich "the best Ripley" and spoke of his "terrifying cool" -- and The New Yorker's Anthony Lane proclaims it the best Ripley and the best Caviani in one. He did see it in an American theater, the Walter Reade at Lincoln Center. I think we're ignoring the Highsmith Factor. It's astonishing that any filming of the great master of weird wickedness, starring this country's most notable character actor in decades, should go unseen here. Damn the European audiences!

But Highsmith abandoned this country, and so has Malcovich.

The reason, I suggest, isn't critical or even financial. There were "strong reviews" (Lane), but since Caviani walked away from the filming and Malcovich lives in France, there was nobody to see that it got proper treatment over here. And that's a pity.

**tabuno** · 03-03-2004, 07:43 PM

Finally saw Ripley's Game on IFC after having passed up several opportunities earlier. I don't think this version would be very popular with the American public, it does come across more as an independent movie vehicle and doesn't really have the flash and action and fast pace as earlier Ripley movies.

This movie has a more gritty Ripley elegantly demonstrated in the first scene and seems more cerebral, less high tech and flashy. Malkovich, an older version, I'm assuming seems to have more depth here and an edgy and complicated personality.

**Chris Knipp** · 03-04-2004, 02:00 AM

I talked to a friend tonight who just saw it on cable. But I don't have cable. I don't like TV and don't spend much time watching it. I know I miss things, but I do get to see a lot of movies in theaters, and I will rent or buy the DVD of Ripley's Game; but wish I'd been at the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center! I used to think people who sniffed at small screens and VCR's were snooty, but I've become a big screen junkie.

I have read many descriptions of Malkovich's "mature" Tom Ripley, most notably the pretty great one by Anthony Lane in The New Yorker (Feb. 16 & 23 issue). Lane gets to the essence of both Malcovich and Ripley and I love the way he makes the unavailability of the film somehow Ripley-like:

Ever the outsider, not to mention the elitist, he would probably relish the fact that his latest appearance on film, like the white truffle, has proved so damnably elusive; it pays appropriate homage to his sense of rarity. . .

Despite some reports of faulty acting in minor parts (like everybody but Malkovich) and uneven production values, Lane is not the only one who makes this "cerebral" "edgy" "complicated" Ripley sound delicious and not to be missed. I said "damn the European audiences!" Well, damn the "American public" too!

**tabuno** · 03-04-2004, 07:56 PM

At the beginning, cable/satellite movies appear to provide a new variety and range of movies, but after a while there comes a point when it all it seems to become a blurry same old, same old. Nothing new, but reruns.

**JustaFied** · 04-03-2004, 06:37 PM

Interesting film. I haven't read the books, still, Malkovich seems more believable in the part than Matt Damon. He's got the sinister look that seems perfect - only complaint is that at times he's possibly a bit too smug.

Wasn't Matt Damon's character in The Talented Mr. Ripley homosexual? I could be confusing this with another film. Malkovich's character certainly is not - he's got a beautiful, talented, musician girlfriend who's so young she could pass for his daughter.

Malkovich's character is much more confident than Damon's. Maybe that's just part of the evolution of the Ripley character. He's now always in control and almost completely self-assured. "Don't spend a minute of time worrying about anything you can't control" - he's cool as can be under pressure. And he'll kill without blinking an eye.

**Chris Knipp** · 04-03-2004, 09:32 PM

You're right about Matt Damon's character; but this aspect of Ripley is only hinted at in the book; the movie pushes it a bit too far. Moreover, Ripley in Highsmith never has any self-doubts; he only has (especially in the earlier episodes) an occasional fear that he might get caught. I like the René Clément version of the story better (Purple Noon, Plein Soleil, 1960), with the too-handsome and emotionless Alain Delon as Tom. But I'm still eager to see Malkovitch.

There is an earlier version of Ripley's Game (the book title), which is An American Friend, 1977, Wim Wenders, with Dennis Hopper a jumpy, uneasy Tom Ripley.

Highsmith's first novel was done by Hitchcock: Strangers on a Train. The amoral Bruno (Robert Walker) is very like Tom Ripley. That Patricia Highsmith's novels have provided material for films for the past fifty years shows their enduring. . .charm, shall we say?

**cinemabon** · 04-06-2004, 08:51 AM

That's because Matt Damon IS gay, hence his attraction to Ben Affleck (sorry, I couldn't resist... )

**Howard Schumann** · 04-06-2004, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
You're right about Matt Damon's character; but this aspect of Ripley is only hinted at in the book; the movie pushes it a bit too far. Moreover, Ripley in Highsmith never has any self-doubts; he only has (especially in the earlier episodes) an occasional fear that he might get caught. I like the René Clément version of the story better (Purple Noon, Plein Soleil, 1960), with the too-handsome and emotionless Alain Delon as Tom. But I'm still eager to see Malkovitch.

There is an earlier version of Ripley's Game (the book title), which is An American Friend, 1977, Wim Wenders, with Dennis Hopper a jumpy, uneasy Tom Ripley.

Highsmith's first novel was done by Hitchcock: Strangers on a Train. The amoral Bruno (Robert Walker) is very like Tom Ripley. That Patricia Highsmith's novels have provided material for films for the past fifty years shows their enduring. . .charm, shall we say?

Hi Chris: I saw this film yesterday and was underwhelmed by it. I thought it lacked the subtlety and inspiration of American Friend which was essentially a probing character study. This is Malkovich's vehicle all the way and if you like his smug sinister persona, you will enjoy it. I did think the supporting characters were not as accomplished as Bruno Ganz et al in Wenders film. It was entertaining but there seemed to be little at stake.

**Chris Knipp** · 04-06-2004, 11:35 AM

Unhappily I haven't yet been able to get a copy of Ripley's Game by Liliana Cavani so can't comment. Being a huge Patricia Highsmith fan, I very much want to see it, but I must reserve judgment till I have. An American Friend as I remember it is certainly an interesting, complex, literary film, but a bit too meandering to give the Highsmith shiver and thrill, Dennis Hopper too ditsy, not strong enough, not really a Ripley type.

It's good to hear from you

**Howard Schumann** · 04-06-2004, 11:43 AM

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Unhappily I haven't yet been able to get a copy of Ripley's Game by Liliana Cavani so can't comment. Being a huge Patricia Highsmith fan, I very much want to see it, but I must reserve judgment till I have. An American Friend as I remember it is certainly an interesting, complex, literary film, but a bit too meandering to give the Highsmith shiver and thrill, Dennis Hopper too ditsy, not strong enough, not really a Ripley type.

It's good to hear from you

I'd have to respectfully disagree. I didn't find Wenders film meandering at all and actually thought it was tighter and more suspenseful than Ripley's Game. The difference is that the actors were not caricatures and I could identify them as real people, including Dennis Hopper whom I thought was perfect for the role.

**Chris Knipp** · 04-06-2004, 02:27 PM

Well, my memory of the film is not at all fresh and I'd have to re-watch it to evaluate your claim. I suspect that Hopper lacks Ripley's amoral cool, and that's what I see as Anthony Lane's assertion in the passage below:

Fans of Wim Wenders’s “American Friend”—an adaptation of the same Highsmith novel, and another central exhibit in seventies cinema—will remember the train sequence as a desperate and panting affair, with Dennis Hopper’s Ripley in full manic spate. This new version is no less fraught, but look how delicately Malkovich, unlike Hopper, inks the moment with black humor. Ripley pauses between slayings and says to Jonathan, “Keep my watch, ’cause if it breaks, I’ll kill everyone on this train.” To hear Malkovich pronounce the words “The noose, please . . . thank you!” as if he were not the onboard murderer but the conductor asking for tickets, is to be reminded, once again, that the creepiest player of our times has a voice as light and high as Fred Astaire’s.

(Lane's witty rundown on cinematic Ripleys can be found on Rotten Tomatoes http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-4597/ My own favorite filmed Highsmiths so far are Strangers on a Train and Purple Noon.

Highsmith has been filmed even more than I thought. A NY Times piece lists http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movie...ml?p_id=217495 ten Highsmith film adaptations since 1977, which of course omits my two favorites. The latest is White on White directed by Spottiswoode. . . not yet released here? Oscar will tell us. . .

**Howard Schumann** · 04-06-2004, 03:09 PM

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Well, my memory of the film is not at all fresh and I'd have to re-watch it to evaluate your claim. I suspect that Hopper lacks Ripley's amoral cool, and that's what I see as Anthony Lane's assertion in the passage below: (Lane's witty rundown on cinematic Ripleys can be found on Rotten Tomatoes http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-4597/ My own favorite filmed Highsmiths so far are Strangers on a Train and Purple Noon.

Highsmith has been filmed even more than I thought. A NY Times piece lists http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movie...ml?p_id=217495 ten Highsmith film adaptations since 1977, which of course omits my two favorites. The latest is White on White directed by Spottiswoode. . . not yet released here? Oscar will tell us. . .

Malkovich is great but for artistic reasons I just prefer Hopper and the Wenders version. Just personal preference.